The World Cup Is Bringing Out the Best in America

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The World Cup Is Bringing Out the Best in America Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. For two weeks, the World Cup has done something nothing else in America has managed to do lately. It has brought the entire world to our doorstep, and the entire world is falling in love with what they found. Trey is joined by Mark Donaldson — a native Scotsman, longtime ESPN broadcaster, and now an American citizen who has been living this World Cup from every angle imaginable. Native Scot. American by choice. And right now, the best person on earth to explain what is actually happening in cities across this country. The Tartan Army Takeover Scotland beat Haiti 1-0 in their opening match — their first World Cup win since 1990, only the fifth in their entire history. And the Scottish fans who made the trip did not just show up. They took over. Ten thousand of them descended on Boston and Providence, bagpipes and all. They packed Fenway Park for a Red Sox game mid-tournament and sang for nine straight innings without stopping. They drained bars dry across the city. They quadrupled the entire region's average St. Patrick's Day beer consumption — in the most Irish city in America, on a random Tuesday in June. And in the middle of all that chaos — zero arrests. Compare that to Scotland's trip to Germany for the Euros two years ago, where 200,000 fans traveled across three cities and also produced zero arrests. This isn't luck. It's who they are. Mark even points to something most people would never notice — city workers in Boston commenting on how thoroughly the Scots cleaned up after themselves. Tidy as they came. A Fresh Look at America Here's the part that hits hardest. Mark has lived in America since 2010. He remembers a time when this country was universally seen, by outsiders, as the best place in the world to be. That perception has shifted in recent years. But for two weeks this summer, something has changed. Fans from forty-eight different nations have arrived, and they are falling in love with this country in real time — the food, the energy, the openness, the sheer scale of everything. Quesadillas the size of your head. Biscuits and gravy. Chipotle treated like a religious experience. Mark's message is simple and it's the whole point of this conversation — don't let this be a two-week moment we look back on fondly. Let it be a wake-up call to keep building on what we clearly still have. The US Team Is Real Mark watched the United States' opening match at a neighbor's watch party, fully expecting to be polite about it. Instead, he says it might be the best first half of soccer he has ever seen — better than what he saw out of Germany. The U.S. is favorably positioned heading into the knockout rounds, and Mark believes a quarterfinal run is realistic if the team can replicate that level of play. The World Cup at Large Trey and Mark also get into the bigger tournament picture — Messi, still magic even though he no longer moves like he used to. Mbappé as the most dangerous player in the field right now, followed by Harry Kane and Erling Haaland. France as the favorite to win it all, given their strength and depth heading into the brutal heat and humidity that will define the knockout stage. A breakout teenager on Morocco's midfield. And one incredible story out of Cape Verde, where a player with Irish roots was scouted and recruited entirely through LinkedIn messages — and is now keeping clean sheets against Spain on the world's biggest stage. Why This Matters Strip away the trophy, the brackets, and the predictions, and what's left is the simplest part of the whole story. People from forty-eight countries showed up in America this summer with flags, instruments, and an unstoppable amount of joy — and for a little while, that joy was contagious. Sports does that. It always has. The World Cup is just proving it all over again, right here, right now. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Xander Schauffele on Two Majors, the US Open Streak, and What Comes Next

Xander Schauffele — Two Majors, a Gold Medal His Dad Slept With, and What Comes Next Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. Xander Schauffele sat down with Trey Wingo at the Travelers Championship for a conversation that goes well beyond what most golf interviews cover. Two majors. Ten consecutive top-15 finishes at the US Open — a streak only Jack Nicklaus has exceeded in the history of the championship. A gold medal his parents still have because it means more to his family than it could ever mean to a trophy case. And an honest assessment of where his game is, where it is going, and why his time will come. The US Open Streak — Badge of Honor or Badge of Frustration? Ten US Opens. Ten top-15 finishes. The only player in the history of the US Open with a longer consecutive top-15 streak is Jack Nicklaus. Xander found out about this stat recently — he is not on social media and has not been since the 2020 Masters, which he says has helped him live longer. His wife has Instagram. He gets screen recordings from the group chat when something is funny. That is the extent of it. His honest reaction to the streak — a mix of both. Having his name on a list with those names is something he is not complaining about. Objectively it is remarkable. Personally it would be nice to be a little closer to the lead. Be a little more a part of the mix. But his answer on where that leaves him is the line that defines the whole conversation — my time will come. He is going to keep paying it forward and he genuinely enjoys what he calls the psycho challenge of trying to play good golf on really hard golf courses. Shinnecock — What Actually Happened Xander's honest assessment of his week at Shinnecock is refreshingly direct. He felt like he could never get anything going. Leaving putts short. Not making birdies. Running out of holes. He tried to stay patient and let the golf come to him and it just never did. He was not playing good enough and he knows it. What he does know is that his game is built for US Open setups. The risk management, the course management, the discipline of knowing when to be aggressive and when to lay back — that is the kind of golf he enjoys and the kind of golf US Opens reward. His caddy Austin has become exceptional at analyzing risk in major championship settings, understanding exactly what score is needed on any given hole across any given round. The example that sticks — on 13 at Shinnecock coming off two doubles, Austin told him to hit driver when Xander had a four-iron in his hand. He hit it to a foot and made birdie. Small moments, big decisions, trusted relationships. US Opens are war. That is his word for it. Mental war first, physical war second — dinner at 10 PM, up at 3:30 AM for a restart, grinding for four days on courses designed to punish you for every small mistake. And that is exactly why winning one feels so validating. The difficulty is the point. The New PGA Tour Structure Xander has been paying attention to what Rolapp announced and his overall reaction is genuinely positive — but the thing he keeps coming back to is not the match play or the iconic courses or the regular season champion. It is the certainty. The last four years of his career have been all over the place in terms of knowing what events are happening, who the sponsors are, where the schedule is going, how the points system works. The points structure changed every year. The playoff format kept evolving. There was no stable foundation to plan around. The new structure — whatever the working titles end up being — gives players a framework that is supposed to be set for generations. He knows what he is playing for. He knows what it looks like. He knows what the path is from February through the playoffs. For a player who is a creature of habit, that matters enormously. His take on the core philosophy — Brian Rolapp used the phrase "you eat what you kill" in the meetings. Xander loves that framing. If you want to play professional golf and you are not ready for that kind of language, professional golf is probably not for you. Play bad, make zero dollars. That is how it has always worked at the highest level and the new structure just makes it more explicit and more honest about what the meritocracy actually looks like. He also loves the match play concept — thinks Brian's background in the NFL means he understands what fan interaction looks like and if match play is done at the right venues it could be genuinely incredible for the sport. And when the subject of Pine Valley, Seminole, and Cypress Point came up in the press conference — those whispers are real and he is excited about them. Harry Higgs — The Most Heartwarming Story of the US Open Xander had a moment at Shinnecock that had nothing to do with his own round. Harry Higgs made the cut. The Big Rig — who had not made a single cut all year, had made zero dollars on the PGA Tour in 2026, and was fighting his way back from losing his tour card — made the cut at the US Open at Shinnecock Hills. Xander gave him a huge hug. They are both new dads. Their kids were born not far apart. He knows Harry is super happy at home right now and super unhappy with his golf. Seeing him make the cut and make some money and get back on the horse — Xander hopes that is the beginning of the comeback. That one moment was one of the more heartwarming things of the entire week for him. The Gold Medal — The Real Story This is the part of the conversation that stays with you long after the interview is over. Xander's father was his swing coach until Xander was about 30 years old. Before that — before any of this — his dad trained to be a decathlete in Germany. He trained hard, worked toward competing in the Olympics, and got in a terrible accident that ended all of it. Everything he had learned, everything his coaches had taught him, all the wisdom and discipline and mental preparation that goes into being an elite Olympic-level athlete — he poured all of it into Xander's brain from the time he was a young kid. When Xander won the gold medal in Tokyo it was at the COVID Olympics — no crowds, no spectators, almost no one allowed in. His caddy and his dad. Those were the two people with him. That was it. His dad slept with the gold medal the night they won. Xander does not have the gold medal. His parents have it. And the way he says that — the tone, the matter-of-factness of it, the quiet pride — tells you everything about what that moment meant and still means to his family. His dad gave his Olympic dream to his son. His son gave him the gold medal back. Two majors. A PGA Championship. An Open Championship. A gold medal. And a US Open streak that only Jack Nicklaus has beaten. Xander Schauffele is 33 years old. His time will come. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

8 de jul de 202615 min

The World Cup Is Bringing Out the Best in America

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